OPINION:
Oh say can you see — all the brand new freebies?
Fully 56 percent of Americans say they’d love to see a single-payer health insurance system in the nation that provided cradle-to-grave medical coverage for every eligible man, woman and child at government, er, make that taxpayer, expense.
Medicare for All. My, oh my.
Founding Fathers would be so proud, yes?
Progressives, it seems, have made great headway in pushing the idea that health care is a basic human right, akin to breathing, or pursuing life, liberty and happiness.
As Kaiser Family Foundation found: 56 percent say yes to Medicare for All, 42 percent say no — but those yes votes rise to 71 percent when the wording of the question is tweaked.
“When people are told that Medicare for All would ’guarantee health insurance as a right for all Americans,’ support shoots up to 71 percent,” The Hill reported.
This is an abysmal showing for a country that once prided itself on self-reliance, bootstrap independence — where a down-in-the-dumps day brought out the resolve to try harder — and a people who would rather go without eating for a day than take charity.
The food stamp president also known as Barack Obama helped usher in a new attitude, an entitlement-minded mass.
Support for the single-payer system fell a bit, to 36 percent, in fact, when participants were told they’d have to pay more taxes to fund it — and that’s a ray of hope. It shows education matters. And that raises the crucial point.
Education is key to turning back this anti-American tide, this progressive and socialist onslaught. The coming generation must be taught of the true roots of this nation, of the true intents of the Founding Fathers, of the truths of limited governance versus Big Government — before America’s noble symbol of a free and soaring eagle becomes replaced with a pair of outstretched grabbing hands.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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